SEC Football: What a 12-team College Football Playoff means for the conference

College football has announced that starting in 2026, the College Football Playoff will go to 12 teams. What does this mean for SEC Football? Are more teams from the SEC more likely to get in the college football playoff now? While the changes could come as soon as 2024, here is a look on how this change will affect the SEC long term.

The SEC is the safest bet to have at least one team in the College Football Playoff

So, while no College Football Playoff has so far not had an SEC Football team in the running, now that it is expanded to 12 teams, is an almost absolute certain that the SEC will have one team in. The top 6 conference champions will have auto-bids to the playoff. While it didn’t seem like the SEC wasn’t going to have a representative in the college football playoff anytime soon, this makes it an almost absolute certainty.

The SEC is likely to have two teams make it into the College Football Playoff

Considering how strong the top of the SEC is, I would say it is a very safe bet to say that the SEC will have at least two teams make it into the playoff in 2026. While it is hard to predict the future, based on recent recruiting history, I would say Georgia and Alabama are gonna at least be in the running for the 2026 playoff race.

One of those teams has to lose in the SEC championship game, so I would say it’s a safe bet to assume that there will be at least two teams from the SEC in the college football playoff when it expands.

If Georgia or Alabama fall off, it is still fair to say that both the SEC West and East will each have a representative from their conference. Considering teams like the strong history of college football in the SEC, it’s fair to say they will probably have two representatives from the conference.

SEC is in the running to have three or maybe even four teams in the College Football Playoff

For this part, you have to believe that the SEC will still be the best or second conference in all of college football four years from now. I would argue that a team that doesn’t even get into the SEC championship game will probably have a shot at making the playoff. Maybe even there will be one team from each subdivision that ends up making the playoff. If the 12-team playoff was used last year, the SEC would’ve probably have three teams instead of two (Ole Miss).

Less conference expansion

This is probably the only negative for the SEC. In my opinion, I don’t think the SEC becomes a superconference after the expansion of the playoff. They expanded the playoff to make teams not join the Big Ten or the SEC. Teams were joining the Big Ten or the SEC because quite simply it led to more money (from playoff berths, that is simply a way to put it, this includes stuff like tv contracts for conferences, playoff money, exposure, etc). Texas and Oklahoma will still join the SEC, but this will stop other teams trying to save themselves by moving to the SEC or Big Ten.

I would rather have a 6 team playoff than a 12-team playoff because I think that’s just way too many teams and it devalues bowls etc. As a college football fan, I am happy that they expanded the playoff. This will prevent teams from trying to save themselves by joining conferences that are far away. This is better for college football and college sports because it keeps the natural rivalries that we have. Additionally, the travel for these athletes was getting hard. See UCLA traveling across the country to play Rutgers.